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Mandela Admits Anc's Errors, But He Sees Some Progress

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — South African President Nelson Mandela admitted Sunday that his ruling African National Congress had made major mistakes in its nearly three years in power.

"We have of course made mistakes. Some of them very fundamental and serious," Mandela told several thousand people gathered to mark the 1912 founding of the ANC, South Africa's oldest political movement.

Among the errors he listed were a multimillion-dollar musical intended to educate people about AIDS that was scrapped as hugely wasteful and a scandal that surrounded secret funds donated by business people to the party.

"The question is not so much whether one makes mistakes or not but rather whether . . . we are prepared to admit our mistakes and above all, to learn from and quickly rectify weaknesses in our work," he told the crowds gathered at a stadium near Bloemfontein in the central Free State province.

Mandela said progress was being made despite the problems that confronted the ANC since it took power in South Africa's first all-race elections in April 1994.